Innovation When Tech Offerings Are Enhanced, Is The Human Connection Lost? Linda Brooks Forbes Councils Member Forbes Technology Council COUNCIL POST Expertise from Forbes Councils members, operated under license. Opinions expressed are those of the author. | Membership (fee-based) Jul 14, 2022, 07:00am EDT | Share to Facebook Share to Twitter Share to Linkedin Linda Brooks is the CTO for Atlanticus , a fintech company powering more inclusive financial solutions for everyday consumers. getty When it comes to growing a fintech company or any other business, one of the most critical challenges is scale. Scaling inevitably involves shifting some business processes and customer service interactions to turnkey systems. While many tech startups pride themselves on having small teams to deliver personalized service to clients, growing pains can set in as new business rolls in and the level of individual customer care is no longer feasible. But investing in technology that enables businesses to manage a higher volume of activity doesn’t have to mean compromising the human connections that breed customer loyalty. There’s no one-size-fits-all rule for how to balance technology with human interaction. Businesses need to offer varying levels of touchpoints so that consumers can access personal connections when they need to and leverage technology when they don’t. For any business looking to scale its operations, it’s important to closely examine customer preferences and calibrate accordingly. Understand your customers’ needs and expectations. As businesses look to determine where it makes sense to implement technology-driven turnkey systems, they need first to examine their customers’ needs. Within any customer base, individuals will have a variety of different preferences and expectations. In some cases, segmenting customers into demographic groups can help businesses analyze and compare their needs. At my company, we’ve found that our younger clients prefer tech-based touchpoints like chat, text or an online portal, while our older clients tend to be more comfortable communicating directly with someone from our team. Comfort can also depend on the type of client: A client of a B2B tech company will have a higher ability to implement turnkey processes, while a B2C consumer may need a more in-depth walkthrough that could require a direct point person from your business. MORE FROM FORBES VETTED Hop On These Back-To-School Prime Day Deals Before They Expire By Jason R. Rich Forbes Staff The Bestselling Nanit Pro Smart Baby Monitor Is $90 Off For Prime Day By Lex Goodman Contributor In addition, data and analytics can help companies predict when human touchpoints make the most sense. By analyzing data on how customers engage with technology and where they request human support, businesses can better understand their customers’ needs and allocate human capital accordingly. For example, my company’s internal data shows that customers consistently call us with questions about billing and payments. Therefore, we focus on anticipating these questions and putting the answers right at customers’ fingertips. Some of our customers will still call because they feel more comfortable seeking confirmation from an agent. But by proactively pushing data like payment confirmations to customers via text or email, we can answer some of their questions before they even reach out to ask. Making answers to simpler questions more accessible allows us to save our people-driven resources for more complex situations that require individualized attention and service. Adopt a “turnkey-first” approach. A “turnkey-first” approach begins by offering consumers technology solutions, followed by options to connect with a team member for more in-depth assistance if needed or desired. Online customer service chats are a great example of a turnkey-first approach: The customer explains their issue to a chatbot, which directs them to resources to address their questions. If the customer still needs help, the system moves them into a queue to chat with a human representative. Most customers’ top priority is finding an answer to their question or a solution to their problem, and whether it comes from a bot or a person doesn’t particularly matter. A survey conducted by Kayako found that 95% of customers value thorough, high-quality support more than speed. Human touchpoints are critical for building relationships and helping customers feel connected to the brand—but not if they create delays in connecting customers with the information or resolution they are seeking. When it comes to growing a business, any operation that relies too heavily on individualized human support is simply not scalable. Adopting a turnkey-first approach allows customers personal interaction without wasting resources on inquiries that can be handled effectively and efficiently by technology. It also allows businesses to cater to a wide range of individual customer preferences—from those who value traditional personal interactions to those who prefer a fully digital experience and everyone in between. Forbes Technology Council is an invitation-only community for world-class CIOs, CTOs and technology executives. Do I qualify? Follow me on LinkedIn . Check out my website . Linda Brooks Editorial Standards Print Reprints & Permissions.